Heaven's Place
by ko-hi
Summary: In his darkest hours, he thought of her, and that silly smile she wore. She had once helped him through these times, but she was gone, and he was left to deal with the devil. [Dark]


_Blanket Disclaimer: All characters and settings from Fruits Basket are the creative property of Takaya Natsumi. Used without permission for no profit._

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**Heaven's Place  
**by ko-hi

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_**Prologue**_

_This must be what hell is like._

It was his first coherent thought in quite some time, he suddenly realized. The first breakthrough in a string of panicked and pained nonsensical memories. He once had a name, and possibly a sense of self-worth. Both were long out of use, though technically he couldn't have been there much more than a week. It felt like years.

He tried moving, and realized that his body was too weak – and that it hurt far too much to even lift a finger. He felt hollow. Incomplete. Something had been taken from him – something important. But if he asked for it back, it would only make things worse.

Opening his eyes, the world was tilted sideways, one cheek pressed against a cold wooden floor, thin, pale strips of almost-light trying to pour into the room through darkened paper shoji. It was that room again, the one place he hated the most in the entire world.

_Let me out._

_"But I'm not through with you yet, my pet."_

He flinched, and then peered around with one eye; the other had been swollen shut, he realized slowly. Nobody else was in the room. Blinking, he forced his worn body to move and pushed himself up on his elbows, arms shaking furiously as he tried to hold his own weight up. It caused something on his back to twinge, and he gasped. With a snarl, he pulled himself upright by sheer willpower, and then leaned against the wall, panting from the effort. His chest burned, making it difficult to pull in air.

Looking down at his hands, he hesitated. Bruises and welts colored all the visible pale skin on his forearms, and legs as well. Some were covered in crusted blood, though he could tell they were mostly from superficial cuts. Something – no, some_one_ – had hurt him. Badly. Badly enough that he didn't want to remember.

_"Until you realize what you're being punished for, I won't let you out."_

But he didn't want to realize, because it would mean he remembered why he was here. That was enough punishment.

_"I won't let anyone else have you. Got that? You're my pet, and nobody else's."_

Somehow, he felt that he didn't belong to anyone, but his voice didn't work and he couldn't tell that to the ghastly voice speaking so smoothly in his mind. _Just leave me in peace._ But no, he remembered pain, and he winced as the after-image of a riding crop descended upon his face.

_"That was because you thought you could escape me. But you could never defy me, could you, my pet? See? This is why you are mine, and not hers. She bewitched you, the devil."_

More pain, and he remembered crying for it to stop. To leave _her_ out of it, and that it was his own choice. Ah, perhaps that was what was important – the girl. Who… oh, the girl with the long brown hair, shining eyes that could instantly see into the heart, and that… silly smile. Always smiling. Always… always concerned with everyone else. Took the blame for everything, even if the situation was entirely out of her hands. Her radiance, always bringing him closer to her, and helping him through his darkest times. The one who saved him. She… her name was—

_"Say her name again, and you will regret it! You're a jyunishi, which normal humans cannot accept. But I will accept you, my pet. Forget everything but me."_

_No, I have to remember!_

He screamed that time.

_No, no… no. Don't—I don't want to be here anymore!_

Something had cracked, but whether that was bone or his own mind, he couldn't remember, because darkness came immediately after.

_Toh—_

_"Don't! She doesn't deserve you!"_

_Tohru…_

This time the voice screamed, the pain turned into blinding agony, and he knew no more. Clutching his head in both his shaking hands, ignoring his weak body's protests, he couldn't hold back the agonizing sob that wracked his chest. It hurt, hurt _so _much.

_Tohru, where are you?_

He remembered then. She was gone, and he was back with… with… Oh God.

_No, this _is _hell._

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_End prologue _

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_I'm just curious to see if there's interest in this story line at all. I've never written anything Fruits Basket before, and to be honest, I haven't read much of the fandom, either. I got the idea for this while I was watching the anime. It's a lot darker than I thought any potential Furuba venture I'd come up with would be, but I guess that's just how my demented little muse works. _

_I guess this kind of takes place later on in the series, though not all _that_ far ahead. I don't intend for this to be long, but it will likely deviate from the actual storyline. Please bear with me on characterization as well; I'm still somewhat new to the series. I will work on it to the best of my abilities._

_As for pairings, I'll leave that up to the readers' interpretations. I'm actually not sure if I'm more of a KyouTohru fan or a YukiTohru fan, because I honestly like both._

_Anyway, if you do happen to stop by and read this, please do leave me a review and let me know what you think of this. I've got another chapter coming here in a bit. Thank you for reading!_


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